


Newly Populated Heart

by keyboardclicks



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Adopted Children, Canon Autistic Character, Family Feels, Gen, actually autistic author, complicated family dynamics, is putting it mildly, me? projecting my stimming habits onto Ayda? it's more likely than you'd think, when your daughter is your mom but you're not biologically related to each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24284341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keyboardclicks/pseuds/keyboardclicks
Summary: Raising Ayda was one of the most difficult things that Garthy O'Brien ever did, but it was worth it to see her like this.
Relationships: Ayda Aguefort & Garthy O'Brien
Comments: 10
Kudos: 87





	Newly Populated Heart

“Hello, Garthy.”

The sound of their name usually brought Garthy out of whatever daydreaming they had fallen into, but the familiarity of the voice made them practically snap to attention. Straight ahead, not five feet from the doorway of the Gold Gardens, Ayda Aguefort was striding forward with her usual gait of purpose. Large, exquisitely beautiful wings tucked themselves tight against her back to avoid those early afternoon patrons who had either gotten into their cups early or had never gotten out of them the previous night. Some stared as she passed-Ayda attracted looks no matter where she went on Leviathan-but she paid them no mind and confidently approached Garthy’s table. They greeted her with the warmest of all their warm smiles.

“Ayda, my darling girl! Feels like it’s been an age since I’ve seen you. I’ve missed you.”

“It has been approximately six days,” said Ayda. “But I do agree that not seeing you for that length of time has been strange and also unpleasant. I am unaccustomed to going so long without being in contact with you and as a result I missed you deeply although I was otherwise surrounded by individuals whose company I deeply enjoy.”

Garthy smiled a little and reached out a hand to give her an affectionate squeeze on the arm. Ayda had been back and forth fairly regularly since the connecting of her inner sanctum of the Compass Points and the home of Figueroth Faeth (and a myriad of others), sometimes staying on dry land for days at a time before returning to her nest. The ability to do so was good for her; Ayda was not someone who took to sudden change with a great deal of kindness, and Garthy hadn’t altogether been sure how well she would have handled shrinking what had been her safe space and moving it somewhere completely new.

They weren't entirely sure _what_ they thought of Arthur Aguefort, but he’d done that right, at very least.

“May I sit down?”

“Of course,” said Garthy, patting the room beside them on the plush booth in which they sat. Ayda joined them, her knees pointing in opposite directions, taking up all the room she needed and wanted to. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit today, my love?”

“I have come to tell you something very exciting,” said Ayda, her gaze shifting with quick turns of her head to different points in the room around her. From a young age Garthy had realized Ayda’s difficulty with eye contact, and so had never pressured her to look at them while she spoke. The intensity of her unblinking, fiery gaze often frightened others, but it was the only way she knew to keep that little bit of what others considered normalcy in her conversations.

“Not getting married already, are we?”

“No, although I have broached the subject to Fig a small number of times. Apparently getting married while one is still attending high school is not something commonly done, and she has also said that all three of her parents would be extremely upset about it, and although she has explained to me that what is important in a relationship is that those in it are happy she has also expressed a want to not upset her parents in that way, and I do understand the wish to please one’s parental figures.”

A pause was taken for breath. The fire that had begun to dim on the tips of her wings and the top of her head reignited when she took a deep inhale.

“Anyway. I have come to tell you that I am going on an adventure.”

Garthy’s eyebrows traveled up a few inches. Ayda did not see this as her gaze was fixed on a particularly shiny strand of decorative beads that hung from the ceiling. “Are you?”

“Yes. It is an assignment, much like that which brought the Bad Kids to Leviathan, but will likely be less wholly dangerous and world altering. Although I do not attend my father’s adventuring academy-as I am far more advanced and powerful than anyone who attends the school-they have elected to bring me along as a hireling. Because they are people who are very near and dear to me I was not going to require payment from them, but Fabian explained that the school will pay me and so I have chosen to accept the money offered.”

“Never hurts to get a little something to line your pocket with,” Garthy agreed.

Ayda was shaking her head in a quick, continuous nod. The kind of nod she did when she was either nervous or frantically excited. Judging by the rapid flexing of the two toes on each of her feet and the slight ruffling of her wings, Garthy would have put all their money on the latter. “Yes, that was my thought as well. I can put the money to good use in funding the library, and if the adventure is a success, we will have obtained more gold by the time we have returned.”

“That so?”

More nodding. “We are to go to the Mountains of Chaos and find the lair of former teacher at the Aguefort Adventuring Academy who has turned himself into a lich and is now causing havoc for a reason we are unsure of. It should be very interesting.”

In the back of their head, Garthy wondered how much of this was an adventure and how much of it was Arthur Aguefort sending his students to clean up after a mess he had helped to make, but there was no point in saying that. Not when Ayda was so happily ruffling the feathers of her wings and bouncing in her seat. They weren’t sure they’d ever seen her so excited.

“Considering the scale of the last adventure they were all sent out on,” said Garthy with a warm chuckle, “that doesn’t seem like much of anything. You’re all world saviors now; one little lich won’t be a problem at all.”

This time a deeper, more sure-steady nod. “Indeed. I am confident that I, myself, would be a challenge for one singular necromancer, though I am sure a lich will prove difficult if we are unable to locate their phylactery. However! I am not concerned. I will be with all of my very best friends. It is incredible I have _many_ friends now, more than I think any of my previous selves have ever had. Certainly more than I, the current Ayda Aguefort, have ever had. I have a _wealth_ of friends. Observe!”

From a pocket, Ayda pulled out a device so technically advanced that Garthy knew it had to be Solace magitech.

“I have a crystal cell phone now,” Ayda explained, tapping at one side of the device. “The name is misleading, as it has many uses aside from that of a communication device. For example, it is able to take photographs which it can then keep within it so that I may look at them any time I wish! It's incredible! I have taken many photos of myself and the Bad Kids and other various friends and acquaintances of theirs who have also become _my_ friends and acquaintances.”

Turning the device in her hand, Ayda pushed it towards Garthy’s face. They could see, displayed on the flat side of the magitech crystal, a photograph of Fig Faeth holding her guitar and smiling. Ayda touched the screen and the image changed to Adaine Abernanth and her wonderful frog, touched it again to show a picture of Rahg Barkrock and Fabian Seacaster flexing their biceps. More pictures flipped by: Riz Gukgak next to a corkboard filled with pictures and pushpins and red twine, Gorgug Thistlespring in the middle of what looked like an absolutely amazing solo on a drumset, Kristen Applebees and Tracker making funny faces, pictures of streets and houses and buildings, fields with more non-cursed greenery than Garthy had ever seen in their life. 

Fig and Ayda smiling at the camera. Fig kissing Ayda on the cheek while Ayda blushed.

“It is truly an incredible little device,” Ayda concluded, stowing it away again. “Everyone in Solace has one, I am told. I understand why; the ability to gaze upon memories I have made with my friends any time that I wish is remarkable!”

Garthy was not a person who held in their emotions. To them, happiness and sadness and anger and sorrow and everything else were things to be given as they came. That being said, they had also always done their best to avoid crying in front of Ayda, who had enough self-esteem issues without thinking she was the cause of her guardian having a fit of melancholy. All that to say that it was a very difficult position Garthy found themself in when a hot, tight knot formed near their Adam's apple and stuck there no matter how hard they pulled, like a stubborn knot in a length of sewing thread.

“It really is an incredible little thing,” they acknowledged, unable to hide the hiccup in their voice. Ayda tilted her head with a frown, eyes flitting back and forth between Garthy’s face and whatever lay behind their shoulder as she tried to make some semblance of eye contact.

“Your voice is pitching in a way that indicates you are upset. Have I upset you? Have I said something upsetting?”

Garthy reached forward, taking Ayda’s hands firmly in theirs. “No, lovey, no, I’m not upset,” they promised with another barely concealed hiccup. “I’m happy. I’m really and truly very happy, alright? I’m just a little bit emotional seeing how grown up my darling girl has become.”

They remembered Ayda, not a day over five when she was pulled carefully from the ashes of her previous self. The innocent wonder her eyes were filled with as she observed her world. The way her little hands had clung to Garthy’s shirt as they carried her. They remembered her growing up, curious and frightfully intelligent, heaving around books the size of her torso as she traveled between the Compass Points and her temporary lodgings in a Gold Gardens’ room until, at around twelve years old, she decided she was brave enough and strong enough to sleep by herself in ‘real’ lodgings back in the library. 

They remembered the first time she flew, her first spell, the first of her fiery, runic tattoos. They remembered watching her pour herself into her studies and blowing past milestones years ahead of schedule, but still working feverishly to meet the expectations that her previous selves had left. 

They remembered their own confusing internal fight: to honor their mother’s wishes and those of her past selves, or to keep Her notes hidden and allow this new Ayda to grow unburdened by the past. Garthy knew that may never be sure that they made the correct decision, but they could not say with any certainty that it was wrong.

“I was quite small when you first became my guardian, and so I would hope that as time progressed I would have grown taller, as that is generally the nature of a living creature.”

Before Garthy could explain their meaning, Ayda laughed a high, squawking laugh and stretched a grin from cheek to cheek. Her wings ruffled and her hands flapped excitedly in front of her. “It was a joke! I understand that your statement was referring to my emotional growth and the expanding of my network of friends. Before I arrived I cast Ayda’s Comprehend Subtext so that I would not be confused by any statements during our conversation. It is truly a wonderful spell that Adaine has-”

Another squawk, this time surprised, was released when Garthy suddenly surged forth to wrap Ayda in a hug. As an avid appreciator of hugs, Ayda did not question this.

“I want to hear all about this little adventure when you get back, all right?” came Garthy’s gentle demand. Ayda's body ran so hot that holding her felt like hovering their skin over the burning wick of a candle.

“I will tell you every detail,” Ayda easily agreed. “Apart from those I have learned are not what others wish to hear, such as every small detail that I can recall about when Fig and I kiss. Those personal details will be left out unless specifically requested.”

“Promise me you’ll be careful, too.”

“I will not make such a promise, as it is impossible to keep, and I do not wish to incur your wrath if I am unable to act carefully during battles because I, myself, or others are in danger and I must protect them.”

Garthy laughed. “Well at least Sending me every night to let me know you’re safe!”

She nodded. “I will attempt this, providing I have spell slots remaining at the end of the day. If I do not, I will ask Adaine to do so in my place.”

“Wonderful.” They placed a parental kiss to Ayda’s forehead then settled back into their seat. “Now then, how about you tell me what kinds of trouble you and the young miss Faeth and all your other friends have been getting up to?”

The Gold Gardens became louder and more intimately packed as time marched forward, (as it was wont to do in most cases not concerning Arthur Aguefort), but Garthy was content to sit in their booth with Ayda and listen to her excitedly recount her daily life with the residents and friends of Mordred Manor. It was difficult to imagine her spending so much of her time amidst such hustle and bustle- she who had previously spent days locked in her quarters at the Compass Points, spilling over notes and spellbooks and not caring to see another living creature until Garthy forced their way in to make sure she was eating and drinking.

Then again, they supposed, most of the company to be found on Leviathan was less than desirable for someone as intelligent and openly emotional as Ayda.

She talked for quite some time about her friends, their parents, and even her own father in a few instances. Halfway through the story behind a teenage ghost who apparently inhabited the graveyard behind the manor, along with the ghost of his pet rat, Ayda stopped mid-sentence and snapped her head up to stare unblinkingly ahead.

“Adaine bids me to return,” she explained after a ghostly few moments of silence. “Lydia Barkrock is making a large feast that we may all enjoy as a way to celebrate our upcoming excursion. She has requested help from myself and the other Bad Kids.”

“Vertainly sounds important,” smiled Garthy. They gestured for Ayda to rise but themself remained comfortably seated. “You get a move on, then, missie. Wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.”

Ayda nodded as she rose. “Yes. I will see you again soon, Garthy. But not too soon, as I have said before, because we will be at the Mountains of Chaos. When I do return I Will recount to you the events of our adventure, as well as finishing the fascinating story of Zane Darkshadow. Until then, goodbye.”

And with that characteristically abrupt farewell, Ayda turned on her heels and left the Gold Gardens. Garthy sighed at nothing in particular as they watched the small trails of fire at the tips of Ayda’s wings disappear through the door.

“She’s gonna be alright,” they managed through the encore of tears welling back up into their eyes. It was half the assuring comfort of a parent, and half the exhausted relief of one. Raising a child had been a difficult task for Garthy O’Brien. Raising _Ayda Aguefort_ had been hell in all the ways that meant they would do it again without question. Seeing her like this, bright and vibrant with friends by her side and the world at her fingertips, they knew that everything they’d gone through to get her to this point had been more than worth it.

A few golden tears ran down Garthy’s face and they hurried to wipe them away, smiling against the back of their hand even while knowing their makeup was going to be horribly smudged.

_“She’s gonna be alright.”_

**Author's Note:**

> This was 100% just inspired by the part at the very end where Garthy is starting to tearily say what sounds like, "She's gonna be..." but then everyone got distracted by "Your girlfriend's daughter fucked your mom!"


End file.
